Oak Street Station

Ethan with his Grandpa Les in 2010.

Serving farmers in southeast SD and northwest IA

SEMI and AG TIRES (new and used) MOBILE TIRE REPAIR AND SERVICE

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2403 US Highway 18 Inwood IA 51240 a fit for their lifestyle right now. She takes time away from the farm and the kids two mornings a week to clean homes in Rock Rapids and east Sioux Falls. When Angela was gone on deployment from Jan. 6-July 29, 2021, Ethan stuck close to home. “Last year I had fat cattle here just because I couldn't go anywhere. I trucked local pigs and grain and that was about it because I had the kids all the time. So I’d feed cattle before the kids woke up; then bring them to daycare; come back and jump in the truck and drive truck until five or whenever. I’d go get the kids; come back, feed cattle again; bed them and then scrape the yards or whatever I had to do,” he said.

After going full speed last year with work and the kids, he realized he had to slow down a bit. “I had too many irons in the fire. I just kind of downsized, giving up my cows and the custom baling I’d been doing since high school. I’m just focused on trucking and farming now.” He still does a little bit of custom spraying and is part of a custom chopping crew as time allows. When livestock was part of the equation, Angela said, “You’d never see him. Cattle on weekends and trucking on weekdays. Then the cattle would be out on weekends, so we’d spend the whole weekend putting them in and re-fencing. It was a lot.”

One change has made the trucking side a lot easier: He converted the old barn into a shop. Previously the barn had a loft and was set up for livestock and it was difficult to even pull a 4020 tractor inside. After gutting the inside of the barn, he reconfigured the bracing. The walls now go up 14 feet high on the sides and then angle up to a total height of 19 feet. “The actual shop part is like 31 by 50. It's not huge and it’s not perfect, but it's well-used. I’ve got space now to work on the trucks. And in the wintertime I can bring all three trucks inside pretty easily. The first year when I didn’t have a shop, I hated trying to get the truck started on winter mornings and then laying around for an hour waiting for them to warm up. My dad wishes he would have remodeled the barn 20 years ago because it didn't cost much and it keeps the look of the old barn.”